Our St. Maarten trip

Alex and I finally made it to St. Maarten! We had been planning the trip since Jessica and family found out they were headed there for medical school. We wanted to take the whole family there, but when we found out the price for taking kids, we decided to let them spend some time at Grandma Day's house and we could use that money and take them to Disneyland (not this year though-I want to go and enjoy Disneyland too :)
We left at 11:59 pm on Father's Day and arrived in Charlotte at 5:30 am (3:30 our time since that is when the time change happened). It was a horrible flight, because neither one of us could get comfortable and even sleep. (I mean how the heck are you supposed to fall asleep sitting straight up.) We grabbed a Jamba Juice and then I laid down and maybe got 1 hour of interrupted sleep. We boarded the plane at 9:30 (I think) and I slept a little better on that plane as long as we were watching a movie for me to listen to (instead of the captain who kept coming on to sell us a credit card). We got to St. Maarten at 1:15 where Jessica, Jane, and Quinn were nice enough to pick us up. They took us to their place and showed us around. We then went to Mullet Bay, which was in walking distance from Jessica's and took a look around. It was so beautiful! That day was my birthday and it was a beautiful way to spend my birthday.

(It was hazy and had rained when we got to the island. This is the view from the plane as we came in.)

(This is Mullet Bay. It was my 3rd top beach on the island. It was beautiful!)

 Alex in front of Dave's school which is a 5 minute walk from their house.

A coconut tree which I had never seen before except in pictures.
   The next day, Tuesday, Jessica took us around the whole island. It was beautiful! The island is kind of funny though; beautiful and green and the tourist areas are beautiful and then you have some houses that look a little dumpy. Driving there is pretty crazy.  When you drive, you nudge your way in and hope that the other people will let you in. They have no speed limits, but it is full of speed bumps-not fun when you are pregnant either. The road was the worst by our resort, full of pot holes and big speed bumps. A very beautiful place with some funny quirky things.  Names of the stores were pretty funny too. They would name the place what it was: Eye Clinic, Pharmacy,

(This is the Blue Mall, a big store that only has 2 stores in it. It's pretty empty.)

These are some of the little cars that a lot of people drive. The roads are basically a 2 lane skinny highway with speed bumps. So I can see why people like the skinny cars.
  We checked into our resort that Tuesday. We stayed at Flamingo Beach Resort. The view of our backyard was the pool and the beach. Once we were checked in,. we read books at the beach and then we swam in the pool. The resort put up a big screen next to the pool so we watched Deja Vu outside like a drive in movie. They only did it once, but it was fun.

 The view from our back porch. The pool is right next to the beach.They run together.

The view of our beach at the resort at sunset.
Wednesday, we went to Marigot which is on the French side. It's the french side's capital. That is where we went to the flee market and bought the girls' presents.  It's also the place where we got an awesome crépe full of fruit.

This is a picture inside the mall at Marigot. It was super tiny.
   On Thursday we went to Pic Paradise up past Loterie Farm. You drive up a steep skinny road. (That's the road we are standing on in the 1st picture. It's where you hope another car doesn't come the other way because there is no place to let them pass.) Then you hike up for 10 min till you get to Pic Paradise. It's so pretty but we also went on a cloudy day. Come to think of it- it is the island's wet season, so it rained for 5 minutes every day and was cloudy a bunch. But the weather was still fantastic.

 On the way hiking up to Pic Paradise there was all of these white butterflies that would fly all around you. That is what the white dots in the pictures are. It was incredible!

After Pic Paradise, we went down the crazy driving hill and went to Loterie Farm. We didn't do a whole lot there. They had a beautiful pool you could swim in for $26 a person or go zipline down the mountain (which is what I would have done in a heartbeat if I wasn't pregnant). But it was still awesome to check out.

On Friday we decided to go kayaking at Orient Bay. However, when we got there we didn't see a place to rent a kayak and the waves were a little crazy to kayak. We did jump in the waves and read a book at the beach till we got tired of seeing all of the topless ladies. Then we decided to try a different beach which ended up being the most beautiful beach I have ever seen called Anse Marsel which is my top beach there, that was on the French side as well. It took a little bit to get there, it was directly 1/2 way across the island from Jessica's, but so worth the drive. The pictures don't do the place justice. The fish would swim right next to you and I was only in knee deep water. There was this white fish with a black stripe that would follow you everywhere. We snorkeled there as well and saw lots of different kinds of fish.

 (A picture of the island from the road)

(Alex loved reading while we were there. He finished 2 books. Which he usually doesn't sit still long enough to do that.)
   On Saturday we went with Jessica, Jane and Quinn to Pinel Island (my 2nd favorite beach which we got to go to twice while there.) You had to drive for a little bit, it's right next to Orient Bay, and then take a ferry to the island. You could kayak there if you wanted. The fish would swim right next to you there as well. There was little fish that would keep "kissing your feet" as Alex liked to tell Quinn. Quinn was a brave soul with Alex next to him.

Alex went snorkeling there and found a crab inside the big seashell. Too bad we couldn't bring it home.

On Sunday we went to church with Jessica. It was interesting to see the church in another country. The gospel is true wherever you go, but it was interesting to see some of the basic stuff that they believe in, but it takes awhile for them to understand what is being taught. Their church is really little; they have one hallway with a couple of tiny classrooms and at the end of the hall is their sacrament room (tile floor) that is much much smaller than any sacrament room I have been in.

Here is some pictures we took at our beach that evening (our last night at the resort).

On Monday we checked out of the hotel. Then we went kayaking for the afternoon just around the island.
That evening we went on a sunset cruise. It was a beautiful cruise. I just wish their wasn't so many drunk people on the boat. But we had fun anyways.

Tuesday was an adventurous day. We had booked a snorkel trip for that day a couple of days ago. Who knew that it was going to rain most of that day? So before we get on the boat, it was nice weather and the captain says that he admits that there will be some little bumps on the way to Tintamarre Island. It's a 30 min boat ride. So I thought it would be no big deal. Boy was I wrong! The bumps ended up being huge swells really close together. So before you could go over one swell the next one was covering the whole boat with water. We were flying in our seats! Mix that with being 20 weeks pregnant and that part was awful. Had I not been pregnant it wouldn't have been so bad. I had put my leg underneath me to use as my spring and my leg was in lots of pain for the next week because I used it so well.
We got to Tintamarre, hopped out of the boat and snorkeled with the sea turtles. That was amazing! They were beautiful and fun to have them swim to the top to get air. You are not allowed to touch them but you can get right next to them. One was really big that came up for air right next to us. The water wasn't quite as clear as the rest of the time we were there because of the storm moving things around but you could still see really well. We saw a bunch of fish as well.
The next place we snorkeled at was by a big rock that you snorkel next to it. That is where we saw the most fish along the reef. Then we went to Pinel Island. The fish would still swim next to you in knee length water. That is where we ate the sandwiches they provided. Then we left kind of in a hurry because the next storm was coming. This time I got to sit next to the captain in the comfortable chair. That ride was just as bad as the first, but I was in a different seat so it wasn't that bad. Still got really wet though. The 1st mate (captain's son) said that he has never been that cold before. (He should come to Utah and see what cold really is.)  We didn't have many pictures since we were swimming with the fish and turtles.

The next day we hung out with Jessica and family. We went to the Carousel and had some mango ice cream and hung out at Mullet Bay. Quinn would always call us, "that guy" or "that girl." You would ask him what our names are and he would tell you, but he preferred to call us his way. Jane let us hold her after awhile. We even watched the kids while Jessica went to Young Womens. Quinn did awesome and so did Jane, at least she did well for the first hour and half. Then Dave had to take her once it reached 7pm because she had had it with us. She was tired. We took her on walks and played peek-a-boo, but she was done. I thought she did really well considering she only remembered us from the past week. Dave made us orange chicken for dinner which was really good.
The next day, Thursday, was the day to leave. It was sad to leave but I was excited to go see my kids and family. We left at 2pm. Here are some pictures of us leaving and people hanging onto the fence because it's such a big blast of air from the airplane.

It was a bumpy ride because of the storms.  In fact, our 2nd plane got delayed 1 1/2 hours because of it. So we got home at 12:30 am and Dad was so very nice and picked us up. We came home to this on our bed.

While we had an amazing time at St. Maarten and one trip I won't forget, it's nice to be home and to be loved.


The kids kept telling me and keep telling me what an awesome time they had at Grandparent Day's house. They loved the Bird Refuge, surf n swim, 7 peaks, bike rides, and movies just to name a few things. They kept busy. (Grandma forgot to take pictures of their many adventures.)